The Studio Apartment
I must have fallen asleep grinning like an idiot. I'd curled up on the floor and drifted off, and then the phone's buzzing woke me. I'd left it on the floor, and the vibration was making it thrash around like crazy. With my head resting on the boards, the sudden racket made me jolt upright in alarm.
Even after sitting up, I couldn't quite grasp reality. Half out of it, I just stared blankly at the phone going berserk on the floor. I wiped the drool from my chin and slowly picked it up to check the screen—then I didn't merely sit up. I shot to my feet. Yoonchae's name was on the display.
I steadied myself and sat back down. Then I got on my knees, held the phone in both hands, and answered.
"Why'd you take so long to pick up?"
Her words were sharp, but there was no irritation in Yoonchae's voice. It wasn't exactly warm either, though.
"Ah… well… I was, uh… doing something…"
I was pathetic. I hated myself so much.
"I told you to drop the formal speech. Were you asleep?"
I looked around. CCTV…?
"No… no, no… I mean…"
I still couldn't form a coherent sentence. Yoonchae cut off my non-answer.
"Your place is in that villa complex in front of school… which one was it again?"
Huh? I'd never told her where I lived.
"What? When did I… I mean, when did I ever…?"
I heard Yoonchae's short, cold laugh.
"Ah… right. I didn't ask you. I asked Yongjin."
I couldn't speak, and a silence opened up between us on the call. But her voice filled it again.
"Send me the address. I just got off work and I'm heading toward school."
I was stunned. Not merely surprised—I genuinely didn't understand what she meant and asked again.
"What?"
But there was no answer to my question, and the call ended.
What the hell was that. Send her the address? Saying she was heading to school—did that mean she was coming to my place right now? I looked at the screen after the call. It was past ten-thirty. Coming to where I lived alone at this late hour? No way… Ah—she must mean she was coming near my place…
I texted her the address. And I wrote it like this:
A reply came almost immediately, as if she'd been waiting.
I froze again. Then I reread the text more than ten times. Then I looked around the room and started cleaning like a madman. The alcohol from the beer earlier had completely left my system. I grabbed an old short-sleeved shirt I'd thrown aside to toss, went into the bathroom, soaked it, and came out to start wiping the floor. Sweat dripped onto the spots I'd just mopped, and I had no idea how many times I re-wiped them.
"Easy to find."
Yoonchae looked around as she came into the room. My place had no bed—I lived with a mattress on the floor. I sat demurely in the corner of that mattress. Yoonchae stepped around the folding table I'd set up nearby and put the convenience-store plastic bag she'd brought on top of it.
"Come here. Let's have a drink."
I carefully approached the table like a new bride. Inside the bag were beer, soju, snacks, and a can of tuna. Looking in, I murmured quietly.
"Soju…"
Yoonchae looked at me as she spoke.
"Let's do bomb shots. Bring some cups…"
"Okay…"
Watching me get up, Yoonchae said,
"I walked fast to get here quick, so my throat's dry and I'm hot. I'm gonna take some clothes off."
I was about to go for the cups and whirled around in shock.
"What?"
Yoonchae said as she pulled off her shirt,
"How many times do I have to tell you to drop the formal speech…"
Yoonchae's face disappeared under the lifted T-shirt. And my eyes took in her white bra and the breasts hidden behind it. She twisted her body as if her head was stuck in the shirt, and her breasts swayed. I felt a change starting in my body.
Yoonchae pulled the T-shirt off over her head, and I quickly turned away and brought the cups. While I carried them toward the table, she was taking off her jeans too.
"S-senior…"
When I spoke in surprise, Yoonchae glared at me again and said,
"Call me 'Yoonchae'…"
As she said that, she pulled down her jeans. She was wearing panties that matched the bra. Because they were skinny jeans, when she tugged them down, her panties came with them a little. Yoonchae paid no attention to my gaze as she took off her pants and sat back down in front of the table.
She mixed beer and soju into two bomb shots and held one out to me. Even while making and drinking two rounds in a row, she barely said a word. On the third, as she opened the tuna can, she spoke.
"This is a monthly rental, right? You've already paid this month's rent?"
What was this out of nowhere… I nodded without thinking. Yoonchae took a bite of tuna with wooden chopsticks and said,
"Then when the rent date's up, ask for the deposit back and move into my place."
I was putting a snack in my mouth and dropped it.
"What?"
Yoonchae didn't look at me, whether intentionally or not, as she spoke.
"Come live at my place. I live alone so it's fine. There's no reason to waste rent money here, right?"
I couldn't say anything. It was completely out of the blue, and she was saying it like it was nothing. This was basically saying we should live together. A woman who never even glanced at me had suddenly started talking to me one day, put me through some weird ritual, given me her body… and now she was even saying we should live together. I was dumbfounded, but I definitely didn't hate it. I even thought there couldn't be another lucky bastard like me in the world. But it was unsettling, that much was true. No matter how hard I thought, there was no reason for her to suddenly treat me like this. And that story about a god she'd told me—wasn't that pretty hard to believe too?
Yoonchae downed another bomb shot in one go. Then she said to me,
"I can hear you overthinking from here, so don't bother. Like I said yesterday, I'm the person who decided to give you the rest of my life. Watching you live alone like this is hard, and it's not like I can come over every day to cook for you either, and I can't just pretend I don't see you using tissues alone like that either…"
Yoonchae pointed at a wad of tissue in the corner. I'd thought I'd cleaned everything when she said she was coming, but apparently something was left. Looking closer, the tissue she was pointing at definitely wasn't that kind of tissue. It was the one I'd used to wipe up beer I'd spilled earlier. I quickly grabbed it and said,
"This tissue is… absolutely… this is… just…"
Yoonchae cracked open a new beer can and looked at my glass. A drink-up expression. When I quickly emptied it, she made another round each and said,
"When I go to work I stand the whole time. So my legs hurt and I'm tired. Let's drink quick and sleep."
I nearly spit out the alcohol I was drinking.
"S-sleep? Here? Together?"
Yoonchae nodded and downed her drink in one gulp. Then she looked around, pointed at the bathroom, and said,
"Bathroom?"
When I nodded, she went in, washed her face, and came out. She'd only been wearing light basic makeup, so washing her face barely changed how she looked. Yoonchae walked to the mattress, lay down, and said,
"You hurry up too."
I was flustered not knowing what to do, but I couldn't deny that my heart was pounding and I was getting excited. I quickly went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. For a very long time. Then I washed my face and came out. Looking at me like that, Yoonchae said,
"Your stuff is just this desk and wardrobe… that's all, right?"
I looked around with her and nodded.
"I'll call a moving company and take it. When do you want to come? This weekend?"
I couldn't answer. Because "sure, let's do that" wasn't something I could say yet.
"I'll talk to the landlord…"
Yoonchae glared at me.
"…I'll talk to him!!"
She sat up on the mattress and reached behind her back to unhook her bra. When my face turned shocked, she said,
"We did it yesterday too. Why are you so surprised? Come on. Let's sleep."
Yoonchae lay down on the mattress like it was nothing. I could see her breasts sway.
I shuffled over to where the mattress was. Then I lay on my side at the edge of it with my back to her. Silence settled for a moment.
"Drinking makes me a little sleepy. But if you want to do it, we can."
I didn't answer. Or rather, I couldn't. After waiting a moment for my reply, Yoonchae said in a voice thick with sleep,
"Yeah… from now on we'll always be together, so whenever you want to, just do it."
And then I heard no more of her voice. When I carefully looked back, she seemed to have fallen asleep.